Stock of downstream complementary assets as a catalyst for product innovation during technological change in the U.S. machine tool industry

Research summary : We investigate the effect of incumbents' stock of downstream complementary assets on their product innovation during a disruptive technological change. We theorize that a firm's stock of downstream complementary assets, by providing critical information about shifting demand conditions, will play a catalytic role in firm adaptation during such a change. Using the advent of disruptive computer numerical control machine tools in the U.S. machine tool industry during the 1970s and 1980s as the context, we find that firms with greater stocks of downstream complementary assets are likely to be product innovation leaders during such a change. Managerial summary : Disruptive changes are challenging firms across industries. We concentrate on the U.S. machine tool industry during the 1970s and 1980s when Japanese manufacturers with disruptive computer numerical control systems challenged the U.S. manufacturers. We find that, under the threat of disruption, the greater the stock of downstream complementary assets a U.S. machine tool manufacturer has, the more likely it is to be the product innovation leader with the disruptive technology. Our findings provide novel insights for managers in companies that face disruptive changes and can help them avoid the consequences of such changes as predicted by prior research. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The management of technological innovation in the machine tool industry: a cross-national regional survey of Britain and Switzerland

Abstract
The research was undertaken during 1983 to find out why a country such as Switzerland has been able to manage innovation in a mature industry, such as machine tools, much more successfully than Britain. The methodology used was by structured interviews of Managing Directors in a sample of firms in the two important machine tool regions of Berne and Yorkshire/Humberside. The results cover the main types of innovation in products and processes, the reasons for innovation and the problems which were encountered by the companies visited. We found that the Swiss firms were strong on product innovation. The most important innovation was the introduction of computer numerical control (CNC), and the Swiss firms had on average introduced this earlier than the British firms and it accounted for a larger proportion of their turnover. The main problem for firms in both countries was in adjusting to upstream developments in electronic controls. The Swiss had better downstream market links with their customers who were mostly in foreign countries. Some British firms were handicapped by being part of company groups and used public sector grants for their innovation, whereas the largely independent Swiss firms carried out more self-financing.     

MRO parts service in the machine tool industry

This article examines the post purchase Parts servicing of Machine Tools. Survey results outline the policies and criteria that influence the degree to which replacement parts will be provided for old machines. The survey indicates that the policies of some American manufacturers leave service gaps that can be exploited by foreign as well as domestic competitors.     

Codetermination and technological change in the German automobile industry*

This article examines how works councils in the West German automobile industry have influenced management approaches to technological change in three firms. The authors argue that while the post-war industrial relations consensus in Germany can be increasingly questioned, car-makers in the English speaking countries have important lessons to learn from their German counterparts.     

The role of the process plant contracting industry in technological change

The function of process plant contractors is to design and engineer plants, supply process technology, procure plant equipment and supervise the construction and commissioning of plant for producers in various process industries such as chemicals, gas and steel. As such they play a major part in the process of capital formation and are one of the major inputs for facilitating technological change.
This paper describes recent attempts to identify the factors which determine contractor involvement and use this information as a basis for analysing the part contractors will play in developing trchnologies such as coal conversion and biotechnology.     

Optimizing capital investments under technological change and deterioration: A case study on MRI machine replacement

ABSTRACT

We study the multiple style and type parallel asset replacement problem (MST-PRES), which determines an optimal policy for keeping or replacing a group of assets that operate in parallel under a limited budget. Operating assets generally suffer from deterioration, which results in high operation and maintenance (O&M) cost and decreased salvage value, and technological improvements make it possible for new assets to operate more efficiently at a lower cost. In order to address these issues, we formulate a multi-objective mixed-integer programming (MIP) model that minimizes fixed and variable costs of purchasing new assets, O&M cost, inventory cost, and penalty cost for unmet demand minus salvage values, while considering technological advances and deterioration as a gain and loss in capacity, respectively. We apply our model to a case study involving two different styles of assets: a full-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine and a smaller extremity magnetic resonance imaging (eMRI) machine. Each has two types: high-field and low-field. We perform computational experiments and analyses using key model parameters and illustrate optimal replacement strategies considering the impact of technological advances and deterioration. Results show that the proposed MIP model provides valuable insights and strategies for companies, decision makers, and government entities on the capital asset management.     

Analyzing an industry in change: the Irish software manual printing industry

This article is concerned with the application in a case study of three inter-related theoretical issues: new perspectives on technological change, learning organizations, and the question of market versus hierarchy in the relationships between firms. The case study is of the software manual printing industry in Ireland, and its relationship with the major, international software companies.     

Neo-corporatism and technological change in Australia: an international perspective

Industrialised nations have responded to the recent impact of new technology either by planning within a corporatist framework, or by reacting to changes determined by 'market forces'. Australia is moving from the second to the first strategy because of a combination of political and legal changes, building upon traditional institutions     

Market orientation and customer satisfaction: Evidence from British machine tool industry

This paper examines empirically the relationship between market orientation and business performance in the context of British machine tool industry. An industry-specific market orientation scale was developed. Factor analysis revealed that there were four latent dimensions underlying the market orientation: customer orientation, competitor orientation, departmental responsiveness, and customer satisfaction orientation. Findings suggest that customer orientation and customer satisfaction orientation have a stronger impact on performance than the other dimensions, and that competitor orientation has a U-shape relationship with performance. Departmental responsiveness did not appear to be significantly related to the business performance. Managers could use the multidimensional conceptualization to develop particular kinds of orientations required for better performance.     

Strategy and environment as determinants of performance: Evidence from the Japanese machine tool industry

This study examines the roles played by the environment and realized strategies on firm-level performance in the Japanese machine tool industry. We examine the effect of environment and strategy on performance using longitudinal data on a sample of 25 Japanese machine tool firms over the period 1979-92. Our results indicate that both firm strategies and the environment play significant roles in influencing profitability and growth. More specifically, whereas both strategy and environmental variables are significantly related to firm profitability, only environmental variables are associated with firm growth. Additionally, in contrast to U.S. based studies, we find that capital expenditures and technological change are not negatively associated with profitability. Rather technological change has a positive impact on firm growth. We discuss the implications of these results for strategic management and provide suggestions for future research.     

An exploratory study of technological knowledge when pupils are designing a programmed technological solution using BBC Micro:bit

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Technology educators often provide activities where pupils design programmed technological solutions (PTS) with various programming...     

Organisational culture in the age of the Internet: an exploratory study

Through an exploratory study of a large financial services organisation, this study finds that the idiosyncratic nature of the Internet and Internet operations point to a range of implications for both the interaction of organisational subcultures and the internal and external perceptions of organisational culture.     

Socializing behaviors in business-to-business selling: an exploratory study from the Republic of Ireland

For many salespeople in business-to-business industries, client entertainment is an integral part of their daily duties. Despite this anecdotal knowledge, few studies have so far attempted to examine the potential benefits and drawbacks of socializing with clients in a systematic manner. Presenting the results of a qualitative investigation, this paper shows that when approached strategically, socializing with clients can have positive effects on both the exchange as well as the relational aspects of the buyer-seller interaction. In particular, results indicate that some elements of a close buyer-seller relationship are formed as a result of the holistic experience with the other person and may only be established through interaction outside the office environment. The paper thus proposes that socializing strategies represent a unique tool in a salesperson's relationship selling toolkit—a tool that warrants increased attention in both sales practice and research.     

Assessing the technological capabilities of firms: developing a policy tool

The development of technological capabilities results from an extended learning process and external policy agents can play an important role in its development. This paper outlines trends in governmental and non-governmental policy initiatives and the use of concepts such as capability and absorptive capacity, which are positioned within generic-staged models of capability maturity. This paper describes the development of a technology capability assessment/audit tool that has been designed to help locate firms within four archetypes based upon their level of maturity on nine key dimensions of the management of technology. The tool is intended to help bridge the gap between our theoretical understanding of the principles of technology management and policy practice – allowing policy makers to design mechanisms that focus resources in areas of greatest need through the appropriate selection of policy mechanisms and the targeted design of policy. The use of this tool in field experiments is described along with the implications for policy making.     

Unveiling dimensions of organizational culture: an exploratory study in Malaysian R&D organizations

Previous literature indicated that research and development (R&D) activities are influenced, to a large extent, by the culture of the organization. While these studies have identified elements of culture that are conducive to R&D, identifying the existing dimensions of organizational culture in Malaysian R&D organizations has not been empirically explored. The measures for this study were originally developed for the sole purpose of capturing cultural aspects in R&D organizations in the Malaysian context. These measures were developed based on the relevant issues discovered from exploratory case studies and nine categories of cultural values identified from the literature. A sample of employees (n = 198) from 45 R&D organizations took part in this study. Factor analysis was adopted to uncover common underlying dimensions (factors) of the organizational culture construct. The findings suggest that the organizational culture construct in R&D organizations may best be represented through a structure of eight factors. The eight factors are teamwork and knowledge sharing, empowerment and recognition, conformity and impediments to R&D, risk‐taking, customer orientation, autonomy, social networking, and organizational design. Despite some methodological issues that arose from this study, this model has the potential to become a management instrument to measure the underlying culture in R&D organizations. R&D managers can deploy this model to establish the baseline level of research culture in their respective units and thus provide the foundation for management initiatives to drive R&D activities. This model can also be used as benchmarking parameters when an R&D organization intends to evaluate various aspects of their organizational culture in relation to others that are considered to be leaders in the industry.     

Strategic dalliances as an enabler for discontinuous innovation in slow clockspeed industries: evidence from the oil and gas industry

The concept of ‘strategic dalliances’– defined as non‐committal relationships that companies can ‘dip in and out of,’ or dally with, while simultaneously maintaining longer‐term strategic partnerships with other firms and suppliers – has emerged as a promising strategy by which organizations can create discontinuous innovations. But does this approach work equally well for every sector? Moreover, how can these links be effectively used to foster the process of discontinuous innovation? Toward assessing the role that industry clockspeed plays in the success or failure of strategic dalliances, we provide case study evidence from Twister BV, an upstream oil and gas technology provider, and show that strategic dalliances can be an enabler for the discontinuous innovation process in slow clockspeed industries. Implications for research and practice are discussed, and conclusions from our findings are drawn.